When you least expect it!

Our rudimentary sand art from this past summer on the warm gulf shore on Marco Island in Florida brings to my mind how our walk of faith is conditioned by the effects of those people and events that are around us and how little or great their influence upon you impacts you.  I give God thanks daily that we are created in a framework of family, with individual components from within and supplemental friendships from outside of those relationships.  All of these people, events, and relationships that we encounter shape us for what we might become.  And our task is ever before us.

While we are on the sand theme, it never ceases to amaze me how important those silly sea shells become while you are walking the beach.  Now you have to understand I already have in my personal collection boxes of shells equally matched, classified, and paired with others of the same species to make up quite a collection of shells. Huge!  Yet I find myself continuing to walk down the gulf, filling my pocket (and more often an entire shopping bag) with more rejected calcium from the deep.  It is truly a good day when you come across a rare shell, and at times, I know for a fact that the shell literally just washed up as I arrived on the scene.  Think it is luck?

Isn’t life like that?  I suppose we can miss it if we aren’t aware.  I could be wandering the beach with my head up (instead of looking down for more shells) and miss the entire drama that is playing out in front of me.  All of that beauty, just waiting to be perceived.  All those relationships, just waiting to be explored.  God is indeed good, and often, grace arrives riding the wave just before I do.  I am amazed!

Perhaps all I need do is keep my eyes open to the good things God has in store!

Blessed are those whose roots bear fruits!

One of the great takeaways I had from last week’s Radicalis webcast was when Rick Warren shared the story about the tree which graces his book, The Purpose Driven Life.  It drew me to the text in Jeremiah which illustrates Pastor Warren’s whole point.  When we are rooted (that is to say deep rooted, near the source of what we need to survive) the tree thrives.  When the tree has deep roots, it can produce great fruits.

This tree in Texas obviously has the roots!  Yet when it comes to living lives of faith, how many people think they can do whatever they want?  They feel and then act on every impulse that drives them, not even remotely concerned they might be in dangerous territory.  They ignore any call to be obedient and replace that with a call to whatever.  They might be searching for a good, comfortable place, but if we look to the tree analogy, they will not be able to set deep roots in contaminated soil!

What troubles me is the opposing thought to “roots bear fruits” as Pastor Warren suggested.  How many people, how many churches, how many denominations miss this point completely?  If we are to be obedient, according to Jeremiah, we would put our trust in the Lord and make the Lord our hope and confidence.  Then, we have what we need.  Complete safety, deep roots, the nourishment of water and soil from deep roots, and we’d be pretty much able to withstand anything life might toss at us.  These deep roots allow us to thrive!

Without the roots of obedience, trust, hope, and the willingness to let God be the controlling factor in our lives of service to our neighbor in God’s name, how can there be fruit?  How can we have results when there is not a deeply rooted trust in God?  Jeremiah reminds us those who ignore God are like stunted shrubs in the desert.

There is a calling to a place of safety and serenity.  There is a place to set down deep roots near the source of everything good.  It takes some wisdom discerning the difference, but the results are amazing!

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.  They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water.  Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought.  Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.”  Jeremiah 17:7-8 NLT

The Changing Face of the Gospel of Jesus

Dawn Michele (Fireflight) and Mac Powell (Third Day)  add the final touches to a wonderful duet during the awesome WInterJam 2010 at the Des Moines Veterans Auditorium this past weekend.  Apart from being some of the brightest and best groups in modern Christian music today, what you see pictured is a bit of fusion of what has been around for some time, and some new, hard driving rock.  Both groups fall well into my comfort zone of hard driving rock, and they do it well.

What is not apparent to the untrained eye is the power of the Holy Spirit working in that crowd that evening.  What is not readily visible is the hours of details oriented work that the WinterJam team puts together to make this presentation.  What you do not see is the changing face of the Gospel, for those who are putting shows like these together are hitting the proverbial nail on the head.

The truth in the Gospel of Jesus never changes.  Yet the presentation of that Gospel absolutely has to evolve to hit what needs hitting within our cultural parameters today.  As Tony Nolan put it so well, “we have to reach our kids through their headphones!”  And reach them they did.  Over half of the 8,200 plus people rose to their feet in public affirmation of new or recommitted faith.  And these two great artists pictured above are part of this multi-city presentation of the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ through contemporary Christian music.  Judging by the critics that say Christian music has gone the way of the world, I would beg to differ as I watched the two youngsters in the row in front of me totally get absorbed in the music, whose message was Jesus.  They must have missed the critic’s review.

If you get a chance, catch the show.  It is yet another new “face” of the Gospel which never changes.  It is a beacon of light in a world of false promises.  It is the Gospel in song!

Creation Art

Countless dollars have been spent in the production of wonderful graphics in the movies of today.  State of the art computer generated imaging is what drives the production of all of our modern cinematography these days.  Spend a couple of hours in a dark theater and be delighted in what you get to see.

No money changes hands when the morning fog freezes to the trees in the Iowa countryside.  Creation art takes over, and there is no lack of beauty that surrounds us as the sun beams through the ice crystals and the frozen fog droplets on the trees.  No money changes hands in the beauty of water turning to ice crystals to form all manner of unique design.  Raw beauty at work!  God’s creative hand at work.

I know there is a lesson here for me to learn, even share.  The lesson is to see Creation Art for what it is- the hidden signature of the Creator in the works of the Creation.  The smallest detail, the design, the intricacies of how parts work together in nature, plant, animal, and the list goes on!  God’s power is manifest in the Creation Art which surrounds us all!  All it takes is a good, long, look.  Or in my instance, a picture snapped of my backyard.

Can we see Creation Art?  Can we see the hand of God in what is created?  Can we appreciate what gifts we have been given?

“God made the earth by his power;  he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.”  Jeremiah 10:12 NIV

This is the One!

The Gospel from the second Sunday of Christmas hammered me this morning as I was trying to preach on it.  As I was describing the personal relationship that John was describing in his text from chapter one of the Gospel of John, it dawned on me how many times we reject the Lord in our lives.  Lives that are artificially too busy, lives lived with strange priorities, lives filled with everything else but what they ought to be filled with.  We long for and seek out the face of Jesus but fail to seek what that face represents.  It might be in hour heads, but it doesn’t connect to our heart.

And as I recall the words of John, I know where my own life falls short.  I don’t need someone pointing out my deficiencies.  I could list them for you chapter and verse.  John’s words about Jesus being the “Light” goes to the very core of my thought process.  I am struck by how God chooses to come to us.  Not in blinding light from a thousand suns.  God comes to us with just enough light.  Just enough, as I caught in the photo above, to perfectly witness to the beauty of creation.  God comes with just enough light, so that I have the opportunity to glimpse the face of Jesus.  There’s no glare!

Do you see it?  Do you know It?  Can you understand it?  Our gracious God comes to show us the love which holds the entirety of creation together, even to this day. God could choose the brightest of light, maybe even millions of lights,but instead, God chose “just enough.”  Maybe dark enough that one who isn’t really looking might flat out miss it.  Could that have been the purpose behind the Bethlehem star?

Could it be today, just for today, God gave “just enough” light, for the one who wants to start their walk with Jesus, to see into the very face of God, made manifest in the Son?

 

John pointed him out and called, “This is the One!  The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me.”   John 1:15 MSG

It’s All About the Light

Advent is the time when we spend a good portion of our focus on things that truly don’t matter all that much.  We are confused and befuddled by Christmas lists, stores that do not have what we want, and the overall busyness of life in this wonderful time of year.

Our culture, it seems to me, spends an inordinate amount of time taking our attention off of the absolutely most important thing in the life of the believer-Jesus, the Light of the world.  It is no mistake that we are lured to the darkness of this world.  Each day on the morning shows, it is a litany of problem people having problem situations with other problem people.  More often than not, I cannot help but get the feeling we are all drawn to the darkness.  Apologies to Darth Vader, of course.

The light is at the heart of my picture I took in Ireland.  It is the light, not the subsequent darkness surrounding it that should be at the focal point of our life.  The light, not the darkness friends!  If it is true that we move in the direction of our most dominant thought, perhaps we need to spend a little less time peering into the darkness, to see who else is hanging around there.

It is all about the light!  Let Advent be the joyful time you focus your entire being on the King of Kings who comes into the world to change out our futures for, amazingly, a more marvelous light!.

It’s about the light!

God, come close!

Today was an interesting stream of conversations about the church
and what it can or cannot do for the world. I find it almost
incredulous as I hear about jealousies around ministries that some
people are trying to accomplish while all others can do is stand and
make accusations.  It is disturbing that people within one particular
denomination are so presbyopic that they simply cannot begin to fathom that God might be calling our neighbor to serve in an area which we ourselves might not be capable to complete.  I see arrogance, jealousy, turf-wars, and a whole list of other non-complementary attitudes that characterize this exchange that I almost walk away in total disbelief.  God, come close!

What a complement to those in the church who feel they are in competition with others in the church.  Where did this competitive attitude come from in the first place?  When did we get so ugly and consumer oriented that we have to be concerned about our market share?  Where do we get complaining about others’ success in outreach as though any part of the kingdom hangs on our opinion?  I recall Jesus’ high priestly prayer that might suggest his work on the cross was done for our unity–”that they may be one.”

Unity is a tough commodity to come by, especially in our post-modern era.  We can all look the “other” way when it comes to the community of faith, but sooner or later someone has to acknowledge Jesus’ words to the disciples-”Follow Me.”  In my humble opinion, there is no part of being opinion-driven when it comes to following.  We simply follow.  We simply watch.  We simply look.  We simply listen.  Some might call this a servant heart, and if so, let us be a church of servants once again.

We live in times that ignore parts of Scripture as it conflicts with our world-view or our own sense of “rights” or some other concoction of our own choosing.  We tend to drift from what I perceive is the Gospel admonition of loving God with our whole being, and then turning the dimensionality to loving our neighbor as ourselves.  Where in that command do we become so opinion driven?

To those who choose to perforate the pages of the old and new testaments and in so doing tear out and dismiss whatever part that they disagree with, you make life in the “church” most difficult for the rest who simply want to believe what they have heard, and live by what they have seen.

God, come quickly!

The Spirit was movin!

Kari Jobe and her band was leading worship  at the RightNow gathering in Dallas last weekend. Cheryl and I had the privilege of being in the audience to experience this sweet worship as well as participate in one of the innovative and unique gatherings of the church I personally have ever been to.  The name RightNow implies the intensity of the movement-we cannot wait any longer to be the servants of the Lord.  Right Now!  Awesome!

Throughout the gathering, speaker after speaker, author after author, all came to present a unified theme of getting our collective act together and simply become “traders.”  For those not familiar with the term, a trader is on who trades the current set or sets of circumstances for something better.  One might trade their time to help out one night a week at a homeless shelter.  One might trade their gifts and abilities to become a mentor for someone else.  One might trade some money and sponsor a Compassion Child.  And so we were challenged.

This segment of America’s churches have their finger on the collective pulse of both the problems we face AND the solutions we need to become the followers of Jesus that the Holy Spirit is encouraging us to become.  The Spirit was movin!  Seek out the solutions for yourself-see how your life as a trader will make all the difference in the world.  Right Now!

“So Seek God and live!”  Amos 5:6 MSG

All Saints

This picture of what is left of St. Mary’s Church in Howth, Ireland sets the framework for some thoughts on All Saints Day.  From what I know of the festival, early in the church’s organized existence martyrs who had their lives cut short and who still had done marvelous deeds in the Lord’s service were remembered, as the early church recalled their mighty deeds along the way.  Relics of the saints would be shared to recall the mighty deeds that God had allowed them to complete.  Often, great festival celebrations with lavish gatherings were tossed in for good measure.  From that point on, things have gotten better or worse, depending on whose view you take.

The remains of a church, such as the one above, gives tribute to the lives of the saints who kept it alive and well for as long as it actually did live.  In contemporary Lutheran circles, we recall the lives of those who have gone before us, often simply recalling the anniversary of the date of death on the All Saints day celebration.  Might it be more than that?  As the early church was drawn to the mighty deeds that God did through his believers, are we in a position to be watching those around us in the same way as the early church?  Are we living lives of service and love in our lives?  Do others notice?

To me, there is a reason for all of this.  We recall the mighty deeds of God through His people.  Not the people only, but the mighty deeds.  God chose to use ordinary people to accomplish His will.  God’s big, hairy, audacious goal of living with His people would be achieved as each one of us realizes their part in the bigger picture of things.

There are some directional issues we moderns need to face.  While we look back at those who have walked on the same path we are on, only years earlier, in my opinion we need to pay attention to those currently walking the path, and even to those yet unborn who will walk the path of faith into the future. No one particular time orientation (past, present, future) has a lock on the uniqueness of being children of God.  What we do have is opportunity- to put things into perspective for the present, building upon the work of those saints from the past, so as to build the church by the Holy Spirit’s hand for those who walk the walk today, and those who will join us as we journey toward our heavenly home.  It will be good for us all to rejoice when we finally realize the blessing of “all saints.”

“So let’s keep focused on the goal, those of us who want everything God has for us”  Philippians 3:15 MSG

A Rare Twist of Fate

This evening shot of the River Liffey in Dublin is the backdrop of a most interesting phenomenon this year for Cheryl and I personally.  As we are traveling, we have discovered that all of the UK and Ireland convert back to Greenwich Mean Time today, so we had to set our clocks back one hour to adjust for the conversion.

That is most typical, to be sure, but when we return to the States next week, we will “fall back” again and will be blessed with another hour of extra sleep-all for the second time.  What a treat, and an issue totally related to the timing of things.  (If there is a double-meaning in that statement, it is intended!)

Will we be an hour behind everyone else?

What a nice treat!  God is good!  All the Time!  (Again, double meaning intended!)

“Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it
may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live
long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time.”

Deuteronomy 4:40 NIV